QUARANTINE BREAD

I finally bought a bread maker!  I've always wanted one but could never justify with just two people in the household.  Now that there are FIVE and the little guys are eating adult portions PLUS several snacks every day ... I talked myself into it.

It was so exciting when it arrived.  I patiently waited for the quarantine 48 hours til I could open it.  It fit perfectly in a corner on the kitchen counter, all sleek and new age!  I read the manual, cleaned everything and followed one of their recipes.  Put in the liquid ingredients, then the dry and make a little indent to pour in the yeast.

I put in my choice of 2# loaf with medium crust.  So fun to know we would have hot bread for dinner ... just 3 hours and 11 minutes!  I pushed start.  Nothing.  Went back to the manual, turned off the machine and tried again.  Nothing!  I finally caved in and asked the younger generation.  Nope.  They couldn't get it to go either.  Unplugged it.  Everything.

So I poured the whole container into the KitchenAid with bread hook and gave it a go.  It turned out terrific!  Amazon had the reboxed failure picked up at our front door.  No questions asked.

Don't worry, I limit myself to one slice a day (it is hard!).  Two days later I made a crusty Italian style loaf.  Jesse made pasta with marinara sauce and my oh my!  With a glass of red ... paradise.

Next try was focaccia bread.  This is by far the easiest bread to make.  I topped it with garlic olive oil and coarse salt, put rosemary from our patio on half (little people don't like to see green things) then ripe olives on one end and ripe olives on the other end as Braeden and I like that.  Everyone got just what they wanted.

Kate made turkey, ham, provolone and pesto sandwiches for dinner.  Oh yeh!  Terrific.

So far, knock on wood, success.  This is Thursday and I'm making the sandwich bread like the first time.  I'll let you know!